Creativity Under Constraint: Enslaved Afro-Brazilian Families in Brazil's Cacao Area, 1870-1890.

This article discusses the plight of Afro-Brazilian slave families in Brazil's cacao area. The research focused mainly on the center-south of Brazil like the Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. The slaves form families patterned after Roman Catholic families. However, this is only possible in economically developed areas. There is difficulty in sustaining a family in areas where there is economic decline. Disruptions on the owners of the slaves like death and bankruptcy caused the break up of slave families. Studies have shown how traumatic it is for slaves to be separated from their loved. African slave trade was instrumental in the maintenance of slave labor in the farms in the Bahian county of Ilheus. However, natural reproduction was more important.